CVE-2025-68199
codetag: debug: handle existing CODETAG_EMPTY in mark_objexts_empty for slabobj_ext
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: codetag: debug: handle existing CODETAG_EMPTY in mark_objexts_empty for slabobj_ext When alloc_slab_obj_exts() fails and then later succeeds in allocating a slab extension vector, it calls handle_failed_objexts_alloc() to mark all objects in the vector as empty. As a result all objects in this slab (slabA) will have their extensions set to CODETAG_EMPTY. Later on if this slabA is used to allocate a slabobj_ext vector for another slab (slabB), we end up with the slabB->obj_exts pointing to a slabobj_ext vector that itself has a non-NULL slabobj_ext equal to CODETAG_EMPTY. When slabB gets freed, free_slab_obj_exts() is called to free slabB->obj_exts vector. free_slab_obj_exts() calls mark_objexts_empty(slabB->obj_exts) which will generate a warning because it expects slabobj_ext vectors to have a NULL obj_ext, not CODETAG_EMPTY. Modify mark_objexts_empty() to skip the warning and setting the obj_ext value if it's already set to CODETAG_EMPTY. To quickly detect this WARN, I modified the code from WARN_ON(slab_exts[offs].ref.ct) to BUG_ON(slab_exts[offs].ref.ct == 1); We then obtained this message: [21630.898561] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [21630.898596] kernel BUG at mm/slub.c:2050! [21630.898611] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP [21630.900372] Modules linked in: squashfs isofs vfio_iommu_type1 vhost_vsock vfio vhost_net vmw_vsock_virtio_transport_common vhost tap vhost_iotlb iommufd vsock binfmt_misc nfsv3 nfs_acl nfs lockd grace netfs tls rds dns_resolver tun brd overlay ntfs3 exfat btrfs blake2b_generic xor xor_neon raid6_pq loop sctp ip6_udp_tunnel udp_tunnel nft_fib_inet nft_fib_ipv4 nft_fib_ipv6 nft_fib nft_reject_inet nf_reject_ipv4 nf_reject_ipv6 nft_reject nft_ct nft_chain_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack nf_defrag_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_tables rfkill ip_set sunrpc vfat fat joydev sg sch_fq_codel nfnetlink virtio_gpu sr_mod cdrom drm_client_lib virtio_dma_buf drm_shmem_helper drm_kms_helper drm ghash_ce backlight virtio_net virtio_blk virtio_scsi net_failover virtio_console failover virtio_mmio dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_multipath dm_mod fuse i2c_dev virtio_pci virtio_pci_legacy_dev virtio_pci_modern_dev virtio virtio_ring autofs4 aes_neon_bs aes_ce_blk [last unloaded: hwpoison_inject] [21630.909177] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 3787 Comm: kylin-process-m Kdump: loaded Tainted: G W 6.18.0-rc1+ #74 PREEMPT(voluntary) [21630.910495] Tainted: [W]=WARN [21630.910867] Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS unknown 2/2/2022 [21630.911625] pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [21630.912392] pc : __free_slab+0x228/0x250 [21630.912868] lr : __free_slab+0x18c/0x250[21630.913334] sp : ffff8000a02f73e0 [21630.913830] x29: ffff8000a02f73e0 x28: fffffdffc43fc800 x27: ffff0000c0011c40 [21630.914677] x26: ffff0000c000cac0 x25: ffff00010fe5e5f0 x24: ffff000102199b40 [21630.915469] x23: 0000000000000003 x22: 0000000000000003 x21: ffff0000c0011c40 [21630.916259] x20: fffffdffc4086600 x19: fffffdffc43fc800 x18: 0000000000000000 [21630.917048] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000 [21630.917837] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: ffff70001405ee66 [21630.918640] x11: 1ffff0001405ee65 x10: ffff70001405ee65 x9 : ffff800080a295dc [21630.919442] x8 : ffff8000a02f7330 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000003000 [21630.920232] x5 : 0000000024924925 x4 : 0000000000000001 x3 : 0000000000000007 [21630.921021] x2 : 0000000000001b40 x1 : 000000000000001f x0 : 0000000000000001 [21630.921810] Call trace: [21630.922130] __free_slab+0x228/0x250 (P) [21630.922669] free_slab+0x38/0x118 [21630.923079] free_to_partial_list+0x1d4/0x340 [21630.923591] __slab_free+0x24c/0x348 [21630.924024] ___cache_free+0xf0/0x110 [21630.924468] qlist_free_all+0x78/0x130 [21630.924922] kasan_quarantine_reduce+0x11 ---truncated---
INFO
Published Date :
Dec. 16, 2025, 2:15 p.m.
Last Modified :
Dec. 16, 2025, 2:15 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Solution
- Update mark_objexts_empty to skip processing CODETAG_EMPTY.
- Avoid warnings when slab extensions are CODETAG_EMPTY.
- Ensure correct handling of slab object extensions.
- Apply the kernel patch to fix the issue.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2025-68199.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2025-68199 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2025-68199
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2025-68199 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2025-68199 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
-
New CVE Received by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Dec. 16, 2025
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: codetag: debug: handle existing CODETAG_EMPTY in mark_objexts_empty for slabobj_ext When alloc_slab_obj_exts() fails and then later succeeds in allocating a slab extension vector, it calls handle_failed_objexts_alloc() to mark all objects in the vector as empty. As a result all objects in this slab (slabA) will have their extensions set to CODETAG_EMPTY. Later on if this slabA is used to allocate a slabobj_ext vector for another slab (slabB), we end up with the slabB->obj_exts pointing to a slabobj_ext vector that itself has a non-NULL slabobj_ext equal to CODETAG_EMPTY. When slabB gets freed, free_slab_obj_exts() is called to free slabB->obj_exts vector. free_slab_obj_exts() calls mark_objexts_empty(slabB->obj_exts) which will generate a warning because it expects slabobj_ext vectors to have a NULL obj_ext, not CODETAG_EMPTY. Modify mark_objexts_empty() to skip the warning and setting the obj_ext value if it's already set to CODETAG_EMPTY. To quickly detect this WARN, I modified the code from WARN_ON(slab_exts[offs].ref.ct) to BUG_ON(slab_exts[offs].ref.ct == 1); We then obtained this message: [21630.898561] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [21630.898596] kernel BUG at mm/slub.c:2050! [21630.898611] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP [21630.900372] Modules linked in: squashfs isofs vfio_iommu_type1 vhost_vsock vfio vhost_net vmw_vsock_virtio_transport_common vhost tap vhost_iotlb iommufd vsock binfmt_misc nfsv3 nfs_acl nfs lockd grace netfs tls rds dns_resolver tun brd overlay ntfs3 exfat btrfs blake2b_generic xor xor_neon raid6_pq loop sctp ip6_udp_tunnel udp_tunnel nft_fib_inet nft_fib_ipv4 nft_fib_ipv6 nft_fib nft_reject_inet nf_reject_ipv4 nf_reject_ipv6 nft_reject nft_ct nft_chain_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack nf_defrag_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_tables rfkill ip_set sunrpc vfat fat joydev sg sch_fq_codel nfnetlink virtio_gpu sr_mod cdrom drm_client_lib virtio_dma_buf drm_shmem_helper drm_kms_helper drm ghash_ce backlight virtio_net virtio_blk virtio_scsi net_failover virtio_console failover virtio_mmio dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_multipath dm_mod fuse i2c_dev virtio_pci virtio_pci_legacy_dev virtio_pci_modern_dev virtio virtio_ring autofs4 aes_neon_bs aes_ce_blk [last unloaded: hwpoison_inject] [21630.909177] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 3787 Comm: kylin-process-m Kdump: loaded Tainted: G W 6.18.0-rc1+ #74 PREEMPT(voluntary) [21630.910495] Tainted: [W]=WARN [21630.910867] Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS unknown 2/2/2022 [21630.911625] pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [21630.912392] pc : __free_slab+0x228/0x250 [21630.912868] lr : __free_slab+0x18c/0x250[21630.913334] sp : ffff8000a02f73e0 [21630.913830] x29: ffff8000a02f73e0 x28: fffffdffc43fc800 x27: ffff0000c0011c40 [21630.914677] x26: ffff0000c000cac0 x25: ffff00010fe5e5f0 x24: ffff000102199b40 [21630.915469] x23: 0000000000000003 x22: 0000000000000003 x21: ffff0000c0011c40 [21630.916259] x20: fffffdffc4086600 x19: fffffdffc43fc800 x18: 0000000000000000 [21630.917048] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000 [21630.917837] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: ffff70001405ee66 [21630.918640] x11: 1ffff0001405ee65 x10: ffff70001405ee65 x9 : ffff800080a295dc [21630.919442] x8 : ffff8000a02f7330 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000003000 [21630.920232] x5 : 0000000024924925 x4 : 0000000000000001 x3 : 0000000000000007 [21630.921021] x2 : 0000000000001b40 x1 : 000000000000001f x0 : 0000000000000001 [21630.921810] Call trace: [21630.922130] __free_slab+0x228/0x250 (P) [21630.922669] free_slab+0x38/0x118 [21630.923079] free_to_partial_list+0x1d4/0x340 [21630.923591] __slab_free+0x24c/0x348 [21630.924024] ___cache_free+0xf0/0x110 [21630.924468] qlist_free_all+0x78/0x130 [21630.924922] kasan_quarantine_reduce+0x11 ---truncated--- Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1abbdf3d57aa964e572940d67c9ec5dc87710738 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3f56c407feb967e6faeb4e2e04eaa8edc206a686 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fc6acd4cddf76e7eb7db63649fe36980ce208f56